Xbox Live Vision: First Look

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We troll though online UNO in search of Vision hijinks. Our journey, and impressions of the first day of video chat on XBL.

By Gerry Block

When Microsoft launched Xbox Live for the original Xbox, the company was the first to bring easy online voice communication to console gamers, and on September 19th Microsoft broke new ground yet again with the release of the Xbox Live Vision Camera. As any Xbox Live gamer can attest, the freedom provided by voice chat is a double edged sword. Communicating with an organized team in Halo 2 CTF adds a great deal of complexity and excitement, and chatting with friends or making new ones is tons of fun. On the other hand, the potential for griefing and general annoyance also skyrocketed as those so inclined discovered it could be more fun to enrage their fellow players with insults, singing, or stupidity than actually playing the game.

The Xbox Live Vision Camera expands this freedom of communication even more. The ability to see your friends and enemies is a fantastic new capability that does a lot to enhance the communal aspect of online gaming, but it's also a fantastic opportunity to see random people drop their pants. We went online with the Vision for the first time today, and overall, our experience was actually rather positive.

UNO was the name of our game today, and we dove in searching for other Vision users. The UNO client allows for searching out games with specific rules and settings, and camera use is one of the options. Since the Vision is brand new we weren't expecting many users, and at times we had to refresh the search for minutes on end until we found other camera users.

Our newest buddies.

Once we managed to start playing, we discovered that it is the video component that really makes UNO work on XBL Arcade. It's a laid back game, which gives everyone time for goofing around on camera and chatting. Seeing the people you're playing makes it a lot easier to make friends, and keeps the experience engaging.

Over the course of about 4 hours of play today, we actually witnessed a pretty minimal amount of inappropriate behavior. We only got mooned once, the shock of which made us forget to take a picture, and we also entered a room that had just kicked someone who had at first appeared to be a bottomless girl, which got people excited, until legs were parted and the flasher was revealed to be a man. We did manage to document a new friend who showed us his illegal narcotics (he was quite proud of it)

Stoned ----- showing off his stuff.

We're really quite excited to see where this goes in the coming days and months. Tomorrow we'll have our full review of the Vision Camera and its various capabilities right now.

You know, when I first found out that Microsoft was going to let people use cameras on Xbox Live, I was a little... how do you say&#Array; pissed off. After all, why in the heck should I worry about what that sorry sap on Red Team looks like when all I really want to do is kick the crap out of them? And along those same lines, I'm not really down with physically watching some guy laugh at me via video chat after he just delivered a cheap shot in Ghost Recon. After all, screw that guy.

Then it dawned on me. "Bozon&#Array; you aren't the most pleasant guy to play multiplayer games with." My interior monolog (cleverly disguised as my roommate Dan Iverson), reminded me that I too can be a total jackass when it comes to online gaming, and the video features of the Xbox Live are perfect for when I want to throw tantrums, raise the single-finger salute, or maybe show off in front of my defeated foes with victory dances that would make Randy Moss blush. Now that's something I can get behind.

Is this video camera going to make our lives easier? No chance. Is it gong to get annoying after 10 seconds? Most likely. Is it absolutely necessary for online gaming? Abso-freakin-lutely. If you want to shut some poor sap down, jump out of your seat and kick your cat across the room to show how bad-ass you are&#Array; here's your chance.

And with that, I leave you all in peace. Get out there and cause some freaking mayhem you scoundrels.